Florida has 67 counties, but its businesses are not spread evenly across them. This article looks at the latest county figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and draws out what matters for anyone planning sales territories, mailings or market studies by county. The complete table for all 67 counties is on our page Florida businesses by county.
The source in one paragraph
All figures here come from County Business Patterns for 2023, the most recent year available in October 2026. The series counts establishments, each “a single physical location at which business is conducted,” that have paid employees. It excludes self-employed individuals and a few industries, among them crop and animal production and public administration (CBP methodology). The figures describe the Florida economy; they are not counts from our own dataset.
The ten largest counties
Florida had 645,575 establishments with 9,988,508 paid employees in 2023. The ten counties with the most establishments account for 66.0% of them:
| County | Establishments | Share of state | Paid employees | Employees per establishment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | 98,394 | 15.2% | 1,055,440 | 10.7 |
| Broward | 68,191 | 10.6% | 780,632 | 11.4 |
| Palm Beach | 55,803 | 8.6% | 592,227 | 10.6 |
| Orange | 45,588 | 7.1% | 842,028 | 18.5 |
| Hillsborough | 42,977 | 6.7% | 697,689 | 16.2 |
| Pinellas | 32,509 | 5.0% | 425,004 | 13.1 |
| Duval | 28,342 | 4.4% | 508,104 | 17.9 |
| Lee | 22,756 | 3.5% | 264,855 | 11.6 |
| Sarasota | 15,989 | 2.5% | 162,310 | 10.2 |
| Brevard | 15,510 | 2.4% | 205,503 | 13.2 |
The three South Florida counties, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, together have 222,388 establishments, 34.4% of the state. Half of all establishments in Florida are located in just 6 counties.
More establishments does not mean bigger establishments
The last column of the table shows something a simple count hides. Miami-Dade has by far the most establishments, but they are small on average: 10.7 employees per establishment. In Orange County the figure is 18.5, and in Duval County 17.9. For a seller, this changes the math: a county with fewer but larger employers can be worth more per visit than one with many very small ones. The statewide average is 15.5.
The small counties
At the other end of the list, 26 of the 67 counties have fewer than 1,000 establishments each, and together they hold only 1.7% of the state total. The five smallest are Liberty (86), Lafayette (112), Glades (134), Union (148), Hamilton (160). Because crop and animal production is outside the statistics, the economies of agricultural counties look smaller here than they are.
Which sector leads where
Statewide, the largest sectors by number of establishments are professional, scientific and technical services (94,623), retail trade (75,988), health care and social assistance (73,984), construction (68,008), other services (55,496), accommodation and food services (48,853). County by county, the picture differs. Counting which sector has the most establishments in each county gives:
- Construction leads in 24 counties, for example Baker, Charlotte, Clay, Collier, DeSoto.
- Retail trade leads in 24 counties, for example Bay, Bradford, Calhoun, Citrus, Columbia.
- Professional, scientific and technical services leads in 13 counties, for example Brevard, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Leon.
- Health care and social assistance leads in 4 counties: Alachua, Hernando, Pasco, Sumter.
- Other services leads in 1 county: Lafayette.
- Real estate and rental and leasing leads in 1 county: Walton.
Local profiles show up as well: in Walton County the sector with the most establishments is real estate and rental and leasing; in Sumter County it is health care and social assistance.
Why other sources show different numbers
If you compare these figures with others, you will find large differences. There are reasons for them.
- Registered entities. The Division of Corporations reported 4,129,182 active business entities as of July 8, 2026 (Sunbiz, Yearly Statistics). That is 6.4 times the number of employer establishments; a registered entity is counted whether or not it has employees, a business location or any activity.
- Firms. The Census Bureau's Statistics of U.S. Businesses counted 523,095 employer firms in Florida in 2022 (SUSB). A firm with several locations is one firm and several establishments.
- Classification. The 2023 county figures are still classified by the 2017 edition of NAICS. Lists that use NAICS 2022 codes will not match them code for code; see NAICS codes explained.
How to use county statistics in practice
- Size a territory before you staff it. Add up the establishments in the counties of a planned territory and compare territories with one another.
- Check the sector, not just the total. A county's total says little about your market. The sector figures on our industry pages show Florida establishments for the NAICS codes of each industry and the five leading counties.
- Expect a list to be longer than the statistic. A business list drawn from registration records includes businesses without employees. If your list for a county is several times the Census figure, that is one likely reason, and it suggests how much of the list may be inactive or very small.
- Date everything. Statistics for 2023, a registry extract from this month and a contact list from last year describe three different points in time.
How to get from counts to an actual list of businesses is the subject of How to build a Florida B2B prospect list by industry and county.
Frequently asked questions
Which county in Florida has the most businesses?
Miami-Dade County: 98,394 establishments with paid employees in 2023, 15.2% of the state total (U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023).
How many businesses are in Florida in total?
645,575 establishments with paid employees in 2023, belonging to about 523,095 employer firms (2022). The state's Division of Corporations reported 4,129,182 active registered business entities as of July 8, 2026; that figure counts legal entities, with or without employees.
Where do these county figures come from?
From County Business Patterns, an annual data series from the U.S. Census Bureau. We used the county and state files for 2023 from the bureau's datasets page.
Are self-employed people and one-person LLCs included?
No. The series excludes self-employed individuals and counts only establishments with paid employees. That is one main reason these figures are so much smaller than counts of registered entities.
Can I get the names of the businesses behind the figures?
Not from the Census Bureau, which publishes statistics only. Names come from public records such as the state's corporate filings. Our Florida Business Database offers selections by industry and county.
Figures: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, county and state files, downloaded October 11, 2026. To protect the confidentiality of individual businesses, the Census Bureau applies a disclosure-avoidance method (noise infusion) to employee figures.
